Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.
John 3:14-15 NIV
In Numbers 21:4-9, the Israelites, on their way from Mount Hor to the Red Sea became impatient. They complained against God and Moses. They expressed their dissatisfaction with their current situation in the wilderness. As a consequence, God sends venomous snakes that bite and kill many Israelites. The people then repent and ask Moses to pray for them. God instructs Moses to make a bronze snake and put it up on a pole so that anyone who is bitten can look at it and live. This passage reveals God’s justice in punishing sin. And His mercy in providing a way of salvation for those who repent and turn to Him.
Similarly, our world today is full of this ‘serpent-like venoms’ because of our sins. And they are sending people to hell, where they will be for eternity. Meanwhile, ‘the sinful nature’ that was at work in the Israelites is very much present in us all today. There’s no one here on earth that born a saint. Therefore, all who live according to this sinful nature are under condemnation. They will die by the ‘serpent’s venom’ unless they repent and are saved.
Repentance Precedes Salvation
Meanwhile, the people did not just sit down, everyone waiting for their turn to be bitten and die. Rather, they sought the favour of the Lord with the desire to be saved. They acknowledged their sin and pleaded for forgiveness and salvation.
The people came to Moses and said, ‘We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us’
Numbers 21:7
God does not delight in the death of sinners but that all may come to repentance. He gave Moses an instruction that brought about salvation from the venom of the serpents. Though God could have taken away the serpents, however, He did not. Instead, He wants the people to put their faith in Him as the source of true life. The venom is still as deadly as it were. However, when a stung man looks up to the bronze serpent on the pole and believes that he would not die because God has decreed thus, then he is saved.
Likewise, God, sent His Son Jesus Christ, to save the world from the venom of this deadly serpent. This the truth Jesus explained to Nicodemus in John chapter three. Like the Israelites in Numbers 21 needed salvation from the serpent’s venom, we also do today. However, not by the means of a bronze snake on a pole. Jesus Christ had to be raised for us, the Son of Man had to be crucified. Jesus was raised up by crucifixion, he died on the cross, was buried, and on the third day, he rose from the dead. Now, we are called to believe in Jesus Christ as the ultimate sacrifice to take away the venom of sin in our lives.
Whatever else you may do with the lifted Son of Man, without saving faith in Him, the serpent’s venom remains deadly and eternal life remains unattainable.